1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic television program guide, and more particularly to an electronic television program guide with a calendar tool for facilitating program identification and selection.
2. Description of the Related Art
Television programs are distributed to viewers by a variety of broadcasting methods. These methods include traditional analog broadcast television (National Television Systems Committee or xe2x80x9cNTSCxe2x80x9d standard), the upcoming digital broadcast television (Advanced Television Systems Committee or xe2x80x9cATSCxe2x80x9d standard), cable television (both analog and digital), satellite broadcasting (both analog and digital) including digital satellite system (or xe2x80x9cDSATxe2x80x9d), as well as other methods. These methods allow channels of television content to be multiplexed and transmitted over a common transmission medium.
Program guides for television programming are known in the art. A common method for obtaining television programming information is by consulting paper television programming guides or schedules. This method of disseminating information, however, has limitations. A paper guide may become obsolete or a schedule may change, rendering the paper copy useless. Additionally, the paper schedule may easily be lost.
Electronic program guides have been proposed to alleviate some of the limitations of paper. One example is a cable system that provides a continuous feed of guide information to a dedicated television channel. The channel displays continuous program listings. The continuous nature of the link allows the guide to be updated and reflect current scheduling information. An alternate method of providing guide content is to send it, along with program content, through satellite transmissions to receiving stations.
Previous program guides have been burdened with limitations. Prior television electronic program guides are based around the use of a scheduling grid. This grid typically involves one axis which corresponds to time and another axis which corresponds to transmission channels. At the intersection of each channel and time slot is a xe2x80x9ccellxe2x80x9d which typically displays the title of the program that is being shown on that channel at that time. The problem with this grid-type display format is that when the amount of channels available to the user is more than 15 to 20, it becomes necessary for the viewer to scroll further through the listings, bringing up screen after screen of possible programs and channels. Additionally, if the viewer wishes to look ahead in the schedule the viewer must scroll again to another section of the grid in order to get a complete viewing of programs being broadcast later in the day, week, etc.
The number of television channels and programming alternatives available to the consumer has been increasing dramatically. Under the current grid format, an expanding number of channels are being pushed onto a single screen. The result is that the text of the display becomes so small as to become difficult to read, or the titles and descriptions of the programs become truncated so as to provide very little information to the viewer. Due to the overwhelming amount of information and options, it is necessary to have a method of displaying and sorting all the available programming information for the television viewer in an efficient manner.
Collectively, prior electronic program guide systems are frustrating to the viewer because they do not give the viewer an aesthetically pleasing and intuitive way to view information. Adding a description of the program for each active cell in the grid, or requiring the viewer to go through a hierarchy of screens of categories has not alleviated the problem of giving the viewer an intuitive and informative method of determining what programming is available.
The present invention is an electronic television program guide with a calendar tool, and a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving the electronic program guide. The invention includes a transmission station and a plurality of receiver stations. The transmission station creates program guide data that is in an xe2x80x9cobjectxe2x80x9d format. The transmission station combines the program guide objects with digital audio and video television signals, and transmits an output stream to the plurality of receiver stations. Each of the plurality of receiver stations receives the transmitted output stream and identifies the electronic program guide objects within the output stream. Each of the plurality of receiver stations stores the identified electronic program guide objects.
Using data from the electronic program guide objects, the receiver stations generate a listing of television program representations, and a calendar image separate from and adjacent to the plurality of television program representations. The calendar image includes a plurality of dates and a selection indicator. The selection indicator is movable within the calendar image to select one of the plurality of dates on the calendar image and a particular time. The listing of television program representations represent television programs that are being broadcast at the selected date and time.
In an alternative embodiment, the calendar image includes a plurality of program indicators. Each program indicator is overlaid on one or more of the plurality of dates within the calendar image, thereby providing an indication of the dates on which a set of television programs will be broadcast.
Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers represent corresponding parts throughout:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of a television broadcasting system for the transmission, receipt and display of television content and electronic program guide data;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the transmission station of the system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a receiver station for receiving and decoding audio, video and data signals;
FIG. 4 shows a screen for entering viewer identification data;
FIG. 5 shows a preferred embodiment of a program guide with a calendar tool, with the program guide showing programs currently on;
FIG. 6 shows a preferred embodiment of a program guide with a calendar tool, which is displayed after a user has navigated to a different date than that shown in FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 shows a preferred embodiment of a program guide with a calendar tool, which is displayed after a user has navigated to a different time than that shown in FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 shows a follow-on screen that is displayed after a user makes a program selection from the program guide shown in FIG. 5;
FIG. 9 shows a follow-on screen that is displayed after a user selects the xe2x80x9cshow matchxe2x80x9d option from the screen shown in FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 shows a preferred embodiment of a program guide with a calendar tool that includes multiple program indicators;
FIG. 11 shows an expanded view of the calendar shown in FIG. 10;
FIG. 12 shows a screen for selecting a search technique;
FIG. 13 shows a program guide with a calendar tool indicating dates and times of all showings of a selected program;
FIG. 14 shows a program guide with a calendar tool indicating dates and times of programs a viewer might like;
FIG. 15 shows a screen listing multiple categories;
FIG. 16 shows a screen for entering a search request;
FIG. 17 shows a program guide with a calendar tool indicating dates and times of programs identified based on a search request; and
FIG. 18 is a flow chart presenting illustrative method steps that can be used to practice one embodiment of the present invention.